Red Barrel

Fact Sheet
Red Barrel 

Program Overview
At grocery stores throughout greater Houston, shoppers purchase and donate nonperishables into Red Barrels,
each assigned to a neighborhood food pantry that collects and distributes the food.

Consumers fill the barrels with purchased nonperishable foods.

• Food can be found in prepackaged, marked bags at the grocery store
• Barrels are located near the exit of the store
• The red barrels are in more than 200 grocery stores, and counting
  

History
Red Barrels started in 1986 as a three-month trial program and debuted in 20 stores. A founding board member of the End Hunger Network, Barbara Falik, had seen a program similar to this while visiting another city – that program used bins at grocery stores to collect pet food for animal shelters. She thought if they could get people to give pet food while doing their grocery shopping, couldn’t the same be done for people food.

Today, the barrels collect more than a million pounds of food each year.

How to get involved

Contact Terence Franklin to find out more information on becoming a Red Barrel Agency.
For a list of most-needed items visit houstonfoodbank.org

Participating Stores 
(check with your local grocer to be sure it has a red barrel)

Contact
Terence Franklin
Director of Agency Services
713-547-8617
tfranklin@houstonfoodbank.org